Illington Becomes ThomasLloyd

Illington Funds will start the New Year with a new name: ThomasLloyd Global Asset Management.

The rebranding is an effort for the nearly three-year-old Pleasantville, N.Y.-based shop to recast itself into the truly global firm it has become, according to Chief Operations Officer Doug Brennan. Illington, which already had U.S. operations and distribution in Asia, merged with DKM Asset Management, based in Stuttgart, Germany, last August.

Going forward, the focus of the firm, which has $1.7 billion in assets under management, will be combining alternative asset management strategies with traditional ones to create mainly long-short registered mutual funds for the masses.

“We’ve never been keen on the dichotomy between alternative and traditional strategies,” said Brennan. “We’re trying to employ strategies that work.”

The August merger makes the firm truly global, said Brennan. Besides the offices in Pleasantville, ThomasLloyd will have a team in Zurich, whose primary focus will be fund-of-funds, and plans to reposition itself with new, yet-to-be-announced programs in Asia.

ThomasLloyd will be the “poster child of investment management of the future,” said Brennan.

The Illington name will be phased out over the next month or so, said Brennan. The name ThomasLloyd, he added, is a combination the true first name of Chief Executive T.U. Michael Sieg and Brennan’s own middle name, Lloyd.

For those familiar with the old brand, Brennan said, the company will offer the same services with which they are accustomed. For those just now becoming acquainted, he said, “the main thing we’re focused on is telling our story of expanding those capabilities, and help them understand why we’ve made the change and how it will help our investors going forward,” Brennan said.